*Be
what it may, There is absolutely no justification for all and every
student in the world, not to be registered and stay missing from the
forum.

Being on !WOW! -the World Students
Society and to prepare and compete to be elected on the World Students
Society, is the greatest of honors that can be bestowed.

And
You, Pakistani Students, not contributing on Sam Daily Times : *The
Voice of the Voiceless* is not a very great way of serving, the
students world over, who have granted you the trust and distinction to
compose the building blocks Well, then.........

Time to acquaint with Pining for Paradise Won and repeat yet again, the mastery of Rafi Mustafa and Ambassador K. K Ghori:

It was said the Phagna
was born feet first. According to the local superstition, if you had a
bad back, you would get someone who was born feet first to kick you in
the back; and your back ache would be gone instantly!

People with bad backs went to Phagna requested him to give them a kick in the back.

That was the only time he showed any courtesy to them. He obliged everyone, regardless of their race or religion -Brahmins, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsees, untouchables.

And he never asked anyone for money.

Even
though some people tried to pay him for services, he always declined
the offer, saying that it was God-given gift and he would surely lose
his power if he started charging them.

The urge to know his past kept him going for 14 long years, by his own admission, making the labor of love possible.

It is of little surprise that he dedicates his book to Rumi's intro to his acclaimed *Masnavi* :

Listen to the flute, what it is saying- It is complaining about separation

Whoever is plucked from from his roots- Is always longing to return one day

Rafi Mustafa's book is a rich tapestry of that culture in which the lines of different traditions, beliefs and practices and ethos were always visible, but never ever crossed.

They weren't faultlines, but boundaries. It may have been a stratified culture milieu, but it held itself well without any conflict.

Hindus and Muslims lived side by side, as they do in Mustafa's fabled Birehra,
a a quiet, colorful village in the heart of the United Provinces [UP]
of British India, and gladly embraced each other's diversity.

*The
Key to the eclectic cultural ambience was the tolerance of each
other, but a profound acceptance of the fact that their diversity was
source of strength and not division*.

Both communities were wedded to the same patch of land that nourished them.

So,
beholden to the bounty and benediction of their common land and
remaining faithful to it, they blissfully partook of each other's
festivals, wedding and burial rituals.

They shared each other's sorrows and rejoiced in moments of joy, while inexorably holding fast to their roots.

Tales From Birehra : *A Journey Through World Within Us* is a rich cornucopia of that remarkable Ganga-Jamuni cultural ethos and of the practices that generously fed its growth.

Birehra had both Muslim feudals, wedded to their proud ancestral heritage, as well as Hindu Rajputs equally proud of their Aryan roots. Yet each respected the other without looking down upon them as inferior or unacceptable.

How remarkable that the newborn son of a titled Khan-bahadur is breastfed by a wet nurse from the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system.

The child grows up to reverse the wet nurse as his own mother because she had nurtured him as though he were her own child.

Can anybody in India and Pakistan of today, imagine such an effervescent cross-fertilisation of communities?

Birehra is rich in vivid portrayals of Hindu Muslim festivals and celebrations. Mustafa has meticulously suffused his portraits of the characters with every conceivable detail.

His
characters come alive as people living their simple lives with the
dignity and composure that comes to them from from the earth they have
inherently sworn to honour.

It's a remarkable paean to civilization gone missing. Mustafa has come up with a gem for those not feeling shy to own, with pride, the edifying GangaJamuni culture of their ancestors.

With
respectful dedication to the Leaders, Students, Professors and Teachers
of the world. See Ya all on !WOW! -the World Students Society and
Twitter- !E-WOW! -the Ecosystem 2011: